ACLU of Kentucky

This Letter to the Editor Appeared in the 10-27-09 Edition of the Courier-Journal.

Abortion: less necessary,less dangerous

I would like to respond to some of the letters criticizing the editorial The Courier-Journal wrote in response to the Guttmacher Institute's study of global abortion trends. First of all, regardless of where we land on the political spectrum, each of us has strong feelings about abortion. One thing we can all agree on is that when 70,000 women die and 8 million women suffer medical complications from unsafe abortions, something is wrong.

The C-J agreed that the Guttmacher Institute's three recommendations are common sense solutions to this problem.

The first recommendation is that we expand access to family planning and contraceptive services. This recommendation is key. When family planning and contraceptive services are easily accessible, when men and women's knowledge of those services increases and when those services are utilized, the rate of abortions declines. There is a direct link between increased knowledge and use of contraceptives and fewer abortions.

The second recommendation is to expand access to legal abortions, to ensure that they are safe. Historically, we know that once a woman makes the decision to have an abortion, she will have one, whether it is legal or not. We should support her by making sure that she has access to sanitary facilities and trained medical staff. That is what all of us would want for our daughters, mothers and wives. Legal and safe abortion services do not increase the number of abortions performed each year. Legal and safe abortions across the world decrease the number of deaths and complications for the women in our lives.

The third recommendation is to improve post-abortion care to reduce deaths and medical complications. This is something we should all agree with. After a woman has an abortion, she should have access to comprehensive post-procedure care. This is especially needed if the abortion was not performed in a medically appropriate setting.

All three of these recommendations make sense and focus on what we should do, which is make abortion less necessary, not more dangerous and difficult. Now that is something we all should agree on.

DEREK SELZNICK

Director

Reproductive Freedom Project

American Civil Liberties

Union of Kentucky